Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

located in Huntsville, Texas,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

. The facility, the oldest Texas state prison, opened in 1849. The unit houses the execution chamber of the State of Texas. It is the most active execution chamber in the United States, with 578 (as of November 16, 2022) executions since 1982, when the death penalty was reinstated in Texas (see Lists of people executed in Texas).

History

Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville prison yard in 1870s

The prison's first inmates arrived on October 2, 1849.Hollister, Stacy.
Texas Tidbits
" '' Texas Monthly''. July 2002. Retrieved on July 3, 2010. The unit was named after the County of Huntsville. Robert Perkinson, the author of '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire'', wrote that the unit was, within Texas, "the first public work of any importance".Roth, Mitchel P.
''Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire'' (review)

. ''

Southwestern Historical Quarterly The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, on March 2, 1897. , TSHA moved their offices from Austin to the University of N ...

'', 2011, Vol.115(1), pp.106-107

eer Reviewed Journal EER may refer to: * East of England Regiment, a British Army Reserve unit * Effective exchange rate * Energy efficiency rating in the Australian Capital Territory * Energy efficiency ratio, of a cooling device * Engineering education research * En ...

- Available at

Project MUSE Project MUSE, a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers, is an online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. Project MUSE contains digital humanities and social science content from over 250 university ...

. Originally Huntsville Unit was only for white Texans; the only penalties available to black Texans were whipping and hanging. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, prisoners at Huntsville produced tents and uniforms for Confederate forces at the prison textile factory. After the Civil War ended, Huntsville Unit was the only prison in the former

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

to remain. Perkinson stated that the prison became, within the state, the "first racially integrated public institution". Originally women in the Texas Prison System were housed in the Huntsville Unit.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition. Metropolitan Books, 2010. p
93
. "Conditions at the Walls provoked criticism as well, particularly with respect to female prisoners." Beginning in 1883 women were housed in the Johnson Farm, a privately owned cotton plantation near Huntsville.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition. Metropolitan Books, 2010. p
132
. During this time there was some concern that "immoral practices may be resorted to" in regards to the female prisoners.The Texas State Library and Archives. Fear Force and Leather: The Texas Prison System's First Hundred Years, 1848-1948

Historically the prison served as the administrative headquarters of the

Texas Prison System The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

and the Texas Department of Corrections; the superintendent and the other executive officers worked in the prison, and all of the central offices of the system's departments and all of the permanent records were located in the prison. In 1934 John Lomax and

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

recorded the earliest known recording of "

This Little Light of Mine "This Little Light of Mine" is a popular gospel song of unknown origin. It was often reported to be written for children in the 1920s by Harry Dixon Loes, but he never claimed credit for the original version of the song, and the Moody Bible Ins ...

" when they recorded Jim Boyd of Jacksonville, Texas, singing at prison. In 1974, the prison was the site of an eleven-day siege, one of the longest hostage-taking sieges in

history.Blood Hostages
, ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', August 12, 1974. Retrieved on 2008-07-13. Three armed inmates (

Fred Carrasco Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Rodr ...

, Ignacio Cuevas, and Rudy Dominquez) held several hostages in the education department. The ringleader, Fred Carrasco, had been a porter in the chapel. Cuevas usually worked in the inmate dining hall. Ten hostages were employees of the prison system: two were educators, and one was a guard. Later on, the prison chaplain would also become a hostage. Four prisoners were also held as hostages. On the final day, the inmates tried to escape using chalkboards and hostages as shields.''Warden'' by Jim Willett and Ron Rozelle Dominquez was killed in the attempt. Carrasco killed Elizabeth Beseda and then shot himself. Julia Standley was also killed that day. Ignacio Cuevas was executed on May 23, 1991 for her murder.

Facility

While the prison is officially the Huntsville Unit, the prison's red brick walls led to the nickname "Walls Unit." The prison is southeast of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

and north of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. The original cellblock had been closed for several years prior to 2011. The electric chair was previously in a building adjacent to the institution's east wall. When the

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

was in Huntsville, it was in the East Building.

Operations

The warden of the Huntsville Unit is in charge of the maintenance of the Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, the TDCJ prisoner cemetery.Eternity's gate slowly closing at Peckerwood Hill
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. August 3, 2012. Retrieved on March 16, 2014. Prisoners from this unit are assigned to maintain the cemetery.Ross, Robyn.
Laid to Rest in Huntsville
() '' Texas Observer''. Tuesday, March 11, 2014. Retrieved on March 16, 2014.

Release center

The Huntsville Unit serves as one of the TDCJ's regional release centers for male prisoners. Most male prisoners are released to be closer to their counties of conviction, approved release counties, and/or residences. Male prisoners who have detainers, are classified as sex offenders, have electronic monitoring imposed by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and/or have certain special conditions of the Super Intensive Supervision Program (SISP) are released from the Huntsville Unit, regardless of their counties of conviction, residences, and/or approved release counties. Rick Thaler, the director of the Correctional Institutions Division, predicted in 2010 that the Huntsville Unit, which serves as the regional release center for

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Co ...

, will remain the TDCJ's largest release center.New regional release centers now operating across state
."

. September–October 2010. Retrieved on March 1, 2011. Throughout the history of the Texas Prison System 90% of male prisoners were sent to the unit for the final portions of their sentences before being released. Starting in September 2010 the TDCJ instead began to use regional release centers for male prisoners.

Death penalty

The Huntsville Unit is the location of the State of Texas execution chamber. The TDCJ houses male death row inmates in the

Polunsky Unit Allan B. Polunsky Unit (TL, formerly the Terrell Unit) is a prison in West Livingston, unincorporated Polk County, Texas, United States, located approximately southwest of Livingston along Farm to Market Road 350. - Note the 2010 U.S. Censu ...

and female death row inmates in the

Mountain View Unit Mountain View Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison housing female offenders in Gatesville, Texas. The unit, with about of land, is located north of central Gatesville on Farm to Market Road 215. The prison is located in a 45 ...

.Death Row Facts
." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on August 15, 2010. Between 1819 and 1923 the method of execution was hanging until Texas authorized the use of the electric chair; the use of the electric chair ended the execution of death sentences by counties in Texas. The chair– often

euphemistically A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes t ...

called "

Old Sparky Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey was the nickname of the electric ...

" was constructed by inmates. Between 1924 and 1964, 362 inmates were executed by electrocution. The chair now resides at the Texas Prison Museum, located on Interstate 45 on the north side of Huntsville which features displays of historical items from the prison system, including shanks and other items confiscated from inmates. On one occasion the prison used a facility below the current warden's office as a death row for women. Emma "Straight Eight" Oliver, the first female death row inmate under Texas state jurisdiction, was sentenced to death in 1949. In 1951 her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Subsequently the

Goree Unit The Thomas Goree Unit (GR) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice men's prison, located in Huntsville, Texas, south of downtown Huntsville on Texas State Highway 75 South. The Goree Unit is located within Region I.

and then the Mountain View Unit were used as women's death rows.

Execution procedure

Inmates scheduled for execution are brought from death row on the Polunsky Unit to the Walls Unit early in the afternoon of their scheduled execution. Unlike other states, Texas prohibits inmates from getting special last meals (since 2011) because of abuse of the privilege by past prisoners and the rationale that they did not offer a meal to their victims and therefore should not be allowed a special recognition. Inmates can, but are not required to, make a last statement prior to their execution. By law executions are scheduled to begin after 6:00 p.m. Huntsville (Central) time. The inmates are housed until that time about from the door of the execution chamber; the Texas Death House is located at the northeast corner of the Walls Unit, just below the #1 picket. There is no law prohibiting multiple executions in a single day, but this has not happened since August 2000. The execution chamber is a by room with mint green painted walls and a gurney. When Jim Willett was the warden of Huntsville Unit, he added a pillow to the gurney. Texas uses a single lethal dose of pentobarbital to execute condemned inmates. Two adjacent rooms, which view into the execution room through glass windows, house two groups. One room is reserved for the family or families of the crime victim(s). The other is for the family of the condemned.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition. Metropolitan Books, 2010. p
40
.

Notable inmates

This list does not include death row inmates who were only housed in other units (Ellis, Polunsky, and/or Mountain View) and executed in Huntsville on the days of their executions.

Deceased

* Ronald Allridge: Executed in June 1995. * James Allridge: Executed in August 2004. * Suzanne Basso: Executed in February 2014. * Betty Lou Beets: Executed in February 2000. * James Eugene Bigby: Executed in March 2017. *

Lester Bower Lester Leroy Bower Jr. (November 20, 1947 – June 3, 2015) was an American man executed for the 1983 murders of four men in Grayson County, Texas. Bower spent 31 years on death row and received six stays of execution. He was executed at the Te ...

: Executed in June 2015. *

Ignacio Cuevas Ignacio is a male Spanish and Galician name originating either from the Roman family name Egnatius, meaning born from the fire, of Etruscan origin, or from the Latin name "Ignatius" from the word "Ignis" meaning "fire". This was the name of sev ...

: Executed in May 1991. *

Carlos DeLuna Carlos DeLuna (; March 15, 1962 – December 7, 1989) was an American man who was convicted of murder and executed by the State of Texas for killing Wanda Lopez, a 24-year-old gas station attendant in Corpus Christi, on the evening of Febru ...

: Executed in December 1989. * George Hassell: Executed in February 1928. *

Larry Allen Hayes Larry Allen Hayes (November 23, 1948 – September 10, 2003) was an American spree killer who was executed in Texas for the murders of two women in Montgomery County. On July 15, 1999, Hayes shot and killed his wife, 46-year-old Mary Hayes, at ...

: Executed in September 2003. *

Henry Lee Lucas Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 12, 2001) was an American convicted serial killer. Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely c ...

: Died in prison in March 2001. * Stephen McCoy: Executed in May 1989. *

Jerry Walter McFadden Gerald "Jerry" Walter McFadden (March 21, 1948 – October 14, 1999), known as The Animal, was an American serial killer and sex offender who was executed in 1999. Biography Gerald Walter McFadden was born on March 21, 1948, in Haskell County Tex ...

: Executed in October 1999. *

Ronald O'Bryan Ronald Clark O'Bryan (October 19, 1944 – March 31, 1984), nicknamed The Candy Man and The Man Who Killed Halloween, was an American man convicted of killing his eight-year-old son Timothy (April 5, 1966 – October 31, 1974) on Halloween 1974 ...

: Executed in March 1984. * James Paster: Executed in September 1989. *

Reginald Perkins Reginald Perkins (April 29, 1955 – January 22, 2009) was an American serial killer and sex offender who was capital punishment, executed in Texas for the December 2000 murder of his stepmother. He was also linked with DNA to the murders of two ...

: Executed in January 2009. *

Angel Maturino Resendiz In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

: Executed in June 2006. *

Tommy Lynn Sells Tommy Lynn Sells (June 28, 1964 – April 3, 2014) was an American serial killer. He was convicted of one murder, for which he received the death penalty and was eventually executed. Authorities believe he committed a total of 22 murders and he c ...

: Executed in April 2014. *

James Edward Smith James Edward Smith may refer to: * James Edward Smith (botanist), English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society * James Edward Smith (murderer), American murderer * James Edward Smith (politician), Canadian businessman and mayor of Toronto * ...

: Executed in June 1990. *

Karla Faye Tucker Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was an American woman sentenced to death for killing two people with a pickaxe during a burglary. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since Velma Barfield in 1984 ...

: Executed in February 1998.

Cultural references

* "Huntsville", a song on Merle Haggard's 1971 album, ''

Someday We'll Look Back ''Someday We'll Look Back'' is the thirteenth studio album by American recording artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers, released in 1971. It reached number 4 on the '' Billboard'' country albums chart. Recording and composition The album is bes ...

'' references being sent to Huntsville Prison. * '' The Getaway'', a 1972

Sam Peckinpah David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic ''The Wild Bunch'' received an Academy Award nomination and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institute ...

film, which starred

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

, was filmed here. * Cross Canadian Ragweed has a song that is about the prison called "Walls of Huntsville" on their 2002 self-titled album. *

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

recorded "Ellis Unit One" (after the

Ellis Unit O. B. Ellis Unit (E1, previously Ellis I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated Walker County, Texas, north of Huntsville. The unit, with about of space, now houses up to 2,400 male prisoners.

) for the 1995 film '' Dead Man Walking''. The song's lyrics focus on the effect of the death penalty on the guards that carry it out. Earle has been a vocal critic against the death penalty. *

Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...

portrayed the convict Butch Haynes in the 1993 film ''

A Perfect World ''A Perfect World'' is a 1993 American crime drama film directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Kevin Costner as an escaped convict who takes a young boy ( T. J. Lowther) hostage and attempts to escape on the road with the child. Eastwood co-stars ...

'', who escaped from Huntsville Prison. * Texas Country artist

Cody Johnson Cody Daniel Johnson (born May 21, 1987) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He self-released six albums, including ''Gotta Be Me'', which debuted at number two on ''Billboard''s Country Albums chart, before releasing his first major- ...

refers to the prison in his song "Texas Kind of Way", with the lyric "might as well just lock me up in Huntsville, if your memory's here to stay". * In the 2007 film '' No Country for Old Men'', it was mentioned that the Sheriff in Terrell County, Texas had sentenced a man to death in the Huntsville Unit for killing a 14-year-old girl. * Subject of a song by country singer

Bobby Bare Robert Joseph Bare Sr. (born April 7, 1935) is an American country music singer and songwriter, best known for the songs "Marie Laveau", " Detroit City" and "500 Miles Away from Home". He is the father of Bobby Bare Jr., also a musician. Early ca ...

- "Back Home In Huntsville Again" * In

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

's " Jackie Brown", the characters played by

Samuel L. Jackson Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...

and

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

first met while doing time in Huntsville. * In the 2003 video game

Freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

, the LPI Huntsville is a prison ship orbiting Houston planet in the Texas system. *

David Allen Coe David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly i ...

refers to the "Huntsville prison walls so high" in his song Houston, Dallas, San Antone. *The 2003 film, ''

The Life of David Gale ''The Life of David Gale'' is a 2003 dramatic crime thriller film directed by Alan Parker and written by Charles Randolph. The film is an international co-production, between the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. It was Parker's final ...

'', was shot in multiple places, including Huntsville, Texas. In the film, Kevin Spacey played the eponymous character, a college professor and longtime activist against capital punishment who is sentenced to death for killing a fellow capital punishment opponent. * Jason Boland & The Stragglers released a song off 2015 CD ''Squelch'' titled "Christmas in Huntsville".

Footnotes

External links

Huntsville Unit
-

*
Texas Prison Board: An Inventory of Records of the Texas Prison System at the Texas State Archive 1913-1933, 1943, undated

List of prisoners at the Huntsville Unit
-

The Texas Tribune ''The Texas Tribune'' is a news website headquartered in Austin, Texas. It aims to promote civic engagement through original, explanatory journalism and public events. Its website and content in various delivery platforms serve as an alternativ ...

Texas Prison Museum
*
Inside Death Row
" - National Geographic Explorer {{Huntsville, Texas 1849 establishments in Texas Prisons in Huntsville, Texas Women's prisons in Texas Capital punishment in Texas Execution sites in the United States